A rowing exercising machine is an indoor exercising device which permits the user to imitate the movements of rowing a boat. Since such a device can provide excellent exercising effects, it has been widely used by the consumers.
The rowing exercising machine generally comprises rowing rods, sliding rail and seat pat, in which, the seat pad is supported by the sliding rail and is able to slide back and forth upon the sliding rail. When using the rowing exercising machine, the user can sit on the seat pad and rows two rowing rods with both hands in conjunction with the movement of the legs to move his body forward and backward by means of sliding the seat pad along the sliding rail. Therefore, a high quality rowing exercising machine, which provides very good sliding ability between the seat pad and the sliding rail, is desired.
Besides, in order to maintain the stability of the rowing exercising machine when it is placed on the ground for use, it is necessary to secure the sliding rail on a number of supporting base rods placed in transverse direction. For a rowing exercising machine which is more affordable for the consumers, the sliding rail and the base rods are made of ferrous metal, and then connected to each other by welding. However, the quality of such a product is usually not satisfactory due to its poor sliding ability of its seat pad. Since the surface of the aluminum alloy can provide better smoothness with higher precision without excessive machining, for the products of higher quality, the sliding rail and base rods are made of aluminum alloy which improves the sliding ability between the seat pad and sliding rail and obviously upgrades its utilization value. However, a sliding rail construction made of aluminum alloy will produce following difficulties with respect to the production cost and manufacturing process:
1. Since the whole set of the sliding rail is made of aluminum alloy by extrusion and drawing and the price of aluminum alloy is higher than that of ferrous metal, the production cost will be higher and hence the price of the final product will also be increased. Such a price might deter a lot of potential buyers.
2. Since the main components are made of aluminum alloy, the connection between the sliding rail and base rods has to be formed by Argon welding. Such a welding technique is very difficult to perform and its cost is much higher than that of the welding for other metallic materials. This will also increase the production cost of the product.
3. Instead of welding directly between the aluminum alloys, the connection between the sliding rail and base rods can also be achieved by screws. However, in order to use screws for connection, it is necessary to provide securing means and threaded holes in advance, which obviously complicate the assembling process of the product and also renders higher cost.
An improved sliding rail construction is therefore desired to overcome the above mentioned problems and drawbacks.